Mezgec takes stage 2 of the Tour of Slovenia

by VeloClub

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Luka Mezgec fared best in a wet, slippery finale marked by several crashes, remaining upright and winning the second stage of the Tour of Slovenia. The Orica-Scott rider took a home victory in the race, beating the Italian Roberto Ferrari (UAE Team Emirates), the Australian Mark Renshaw (Team Dimension Data) and many others to the line.

Overnight leader Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) was one of the fallers and Mezgec takes over at the top of the general classification. He is four seconds ahead of Bennett and eight up on Ferrari.

“I am really really happy,” said Mezgec after his victory. “We came so close yesterday to starting the race with a win and I’m overjoyed to have been able to get there today. It was a nervy finale with the slippery roads and crashes, but the boys were fantastic, they kept me at the front and out of trouble and then all I had to do was give it everything to the line.”

“It is my first win of the season and I’m very proud to have taken the victory here in the capital of my home country. It’s very special and it will be an honour for me to wear the race leader’s jersey tomorrow.”

The 169.9 kilometre race in and around the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana was animated by a break of seven riders. Andrea Vendrame (Androni-Sidermec-Bottecchia), Anton Vorobyev (Gazprom–RusVelo), Ivan Santaromita (Nippo-ViniFantini), Gorazd Per (Adria Mobil), Enrico Salvador (Tirol Cycling Team), Tomas Buchacek (Elekov-Author Cycling Team) and Bruno Maltar (Meridiana Kamen) built a lead of six minutes, but the last remnants of the move was caught with 15 kilometres to go.